


Andromeda Rising Side stories

by Mikaiyawa



Series: Andromeda Rising [2]
Category: Andromeda universe, Cinema Bizarre, Lovex, Panik, Serenity universe
Genre: Alternate Universe, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2010-01-19
Updated: 2011-05-24
Packaged: 2017-10-06 11:28:58
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 13,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/53203
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mikaiyawa/pseuds/Mikaiyawa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The back and Side stories in chronological order for my Andromeda Rising Universe</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Escapes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Back story for Strify, Jan, Linke and Juri. How they stole Das Maru-ka and some of why.

Juri quietly set his jaw and refused to show the foreman that his petty tactics bothered him in any way.  He just quietly packed up his duffel and walked out to see about finding new housing.  He only had a few hours; he had to be back for his work shift soon.

His eyes rested on one of the older freighters, she was in excellent repair but for now was acting as a mobile storage locker for things that weren’t really needed on a day to day basis.  Juri glanced around and when he didn’t see anyone hauled his gear over and ducked into the smaller rear hatch.

Somehow Juri would have to get word of the change to Jan, otherwise he’d worry.

~0~

Sebastian Valentine ground his teeth as he stood at near attention in front of his Grandmother.  He wasn’t the object of her furious lecture today, his little cousin Jan was.  Jan who lately had been hanging out with one of the shipyard contractors a bit more than was wise.  Sebastian didn’t see why it was an issue, much less a get called on the carpet and screamed at issue.  He liked Juri, at least he liked what he knew of Juri from Jan’s nattering.  Juri was being gentle of his cousin’s tender heart and protective of his much smaller size but somehow managed the former two without coming across as condescending of Jan’s scary smart brain.

Sebastian locked his jaw when their Grandmother rounded on him for not keeping Jan away from ‘lesser sorts’.  Juri might not be a cousin, but he was far from a lesser sort.  He was one of the more diligent of their contractors, his welds never failed inspection, his wiring was always better than standard and his fitting work never left bits sticking out to snag clothing and skin.

When she sent them back to their quarters Jan was a trembling wreck just a short step from tears and Sebastian was _seething_.

The bitch had already told them they were going to a finishing school that had sent one of their more sensitive older cousins into a depression that only ended when he walked unsuited out an airlock.  The place had a brutal reputation and Sebastian was going to be damned if he let the people who had helped murder poor Hannes rip Jan apart the same way.

~0~

Linke was curled in his bunk with a book reader when Sebastian and Jan came in.  He set his reader aside and reached out to gather Jan into his arms.

“More bad news?”

“Finishing school, at **that** place,” Sebastian’s tone was scathing.  Linke winced.  That was a bit worse than being told you were getting married to a complete stranger.

“Plan B?”

“Yes.”  Sebastian’s teal eyes were resolute.  “You been able to get our things on our ship?”

~0~

It wasn’t until Juri had a full shift off that he noticed some oddities about his chosen hiding place.  Sure it was an older freighter, yes she was in excellent shape, the Valentines took very good care of their ships, even ones whose sister models elsewhere were less than scrap were in full working order.  It wasn’t even that she was a storage room.  It was that hidden in amongst the stored bits, bobs and odd crates there were some very good bits of equipment.

A small high end fooder for one, complete with the barrels and drums of the things needed to run a fooder and to set up a basic yeast vat for another.  A fuel still, in pieces but everything was there and ready to assemble.  An older but still solid synth machine spread out in three crates.

When he poked into cabins other than the one he’d chosen he found bits of personal gear. Clothing and book readers, things that looked like an odd mix of child playing pirate and a drift rat stocking away supplies, a mix that made him a bit uneasy.

But he held his tongue.  After his foreman screamed at him in front of the whole shift for something he hadn’t done he began following the example of whoever was squirreling away supplies and began doing the same.  Spare parts found their way into the old ship, tools and spools of critical wiring, boxes of relays.  He even found parts to replace the old girls jump coils if necessary and hid them away in the clutter of crated boxes and other forgotten junk.

Juri knew he was right when he saw one of Jan older cousins slip in and fill the old girls fuel and water tanks.  He made sure to help one of the slackers on his shift ‘lose’ a pallet worth of filters and relocated them onto the old ship.

He just wished he could get word to Jan.

~0~

“I think Jan’s contractor friend is helping us.”

Sebastian blinked up at Linke. Jan’s face lit up and Sebastian gave himself a quick mental kick.  Of course Jan would want his friend to know, but they’d been under heavy monitoring as far as the Net went and he knew Jan hadn’t snuck over to the shipyard to talk to the man in person.  Only Linke had any sort of freedom and they were being careful to not get him caught.  Linke went back to tightly packing data crystals and plasti sheet in a box as he continued.

“When I went to fill Das Maru Ka’s tanks he was aboard.  I think he moved there after Gullard threw him out of housing.”

Sebastian scowled.  Tossing a contractor out of their contracted housing while still expecting them to show up clean, fed and rested for work shift was idiocy. He focused again on Linke’s words.

“I’m finding spare parts, things on your ‘would be nice’ list tucked away amongst the junk.” Linke nodded at Sebastian.  But he’d been the one to write up the lists, must have, need, would be nice and luxuries.  They’d been hiding the must haves and needs for months, even before Jan made the mistake of attracting their Grandmothers attention.

“He also hid a pallet load of the filters the air and water recyclers need.”  Sebastian winced, he’d forgotten about those, and they were must haves. At least Linke wasn’t rubbing it in that he’d forgotten.

“Jan,” Sebastian waited until Jan looked up at him.  “Did you get all your chemistry stuff hidden away?”

Jan grinned in a way that made Sebastian slightly uneasy.

“I got into a clear spot and was able to divert some things.” Jan tapped his neural net with a grin.  “I couldn’t get some of the more reactive heavy metals, but we should be okay.”

Sebastian grimaced and decided he didn’t want to know why they’d even need those reactive heavy metals; he remembered the sodium demonstration from class a little too well.

“What about personal gear?”

Linke answered first.

“My books and bigger duffel are moved and I have the reader with all the synth codes for clothing if we end up needing it.”

Jan grinned.

“My stuff is all moved but what I had to have to make the room look lived in.”

Sebastian smiled; he’d thought Jan’s better readers had vanished.  Not that anyone would notice, not with all the older outdated ones strewn everywhere with the clothes Jan didn’t like or couldn’t fit in anymore thrown on every available surface.  The chaos hid a great deal.

He’d even made sure to gripe about it where their minders could hear.  Two they could slip away from, the third was a right pain, but he wasn’t due to come on for another shift.

“Gullard is slacking on seal checks again.”  Linke’s comment made Sebastian go cold.  Seal failure killed people.

~0~

Juri grimaced, another seal that should have been replaced.  He settled down and began the tedious task of stripping out the disintegrating bits, polishing the seal track to bare metal and laying a layer of sticky primer down.  Then he carefully bullied the new seal into position.

He’d catch hell from Gullard for his work ticket being off, and any other place that would be acceptable when he said he’d found and replaced a bad seal.  Here he knew he’d get docked meal credit again.  It was like the man was trying to get people killed.

When the shift end siren sounded Juri rose and went back to the rally point.  He made sure to log his ticket, and made sure to log which seal had been bad and replaced.

Gullard was nowhere to be found, and that made Juri uneasy.  He moved quietly through the crowd of off shift workers to the mess and got his meal.  It was as he’d expected, a minimal protein and carbohydrate meal, just enough to keep a man going but not enough for a man Juri’s size to keep working on.

He’d barely finished it when a shudder ran through the deck plates under his feet.  It was a small vibration and many of his fellow workers didn’t notice it.  But Juri felt a prickle run up his spine.  As quickly as he could he set his tray on the recycle line and headed for the ship he slept on.  If his bad feeling was right he wanted another airlock between him and the station.

~0~

Linke swore.  Sebastian was in the pilot’s seat and Jan was watching the back hatch.  He was minding the engines, a task Jan was really better suited to, but Jan was anxious and wanted to see if he could spot Juri.  He’d checked the com logs and found Juri had made several attempts to get in touch with Jan, something that Jan had been overjoyed to know.  He’d also found Gullard had been trying to beat the man down, short rations, illegally short rations in fact, no housing and being set to work that wasn’t on his CV listing.

“Oh god... he’s aboard.  I’m dogging the hatch now.”  Jan sounded like he was near tears.  But then the ship lurched and Linke could hear Sebastian swearing savagely.

“Strify?” He fell back on an old childhood nickname.

“Gravity field failed. And it looks like the force wall holding atmosphere over the shipyard failed as well.”

Linke felt his heart freeze.

“People?”  If there were unsuited workers they’d have to put aside their own escape plans to rescue them.  And this could be their only chance.

“None.  Which at this time of day is odd.”

Linke felt both relieved and terrified.  It was meal break for second shift workers, first shift would have been doing their Last-meal and third shift would have just been coming on.  There should have been foremen, and material handlers in the shipyard.

A hard jolt sent Linke to his knees and he heard both his cousins swearing as Sebastian cut ship gravity and let their ship tumble.  With a grumble Linke grabbed for the teather bars to keep from spinning.

“Strify, status.”  Linke grabbed at the hatch leading up from the engine room.

“I’m letting us drift out.  Jan you have our repulsors set up?”

“Yeah… and pushing debris away from us. But I have it set low, so we aren’t slinging stuff away faster than it comes at us.”  Linke had to smile, that was clever, and might buy them a bit more time to run away.  A low set field might have been left up by accident.  And People would be scrambling to make sure there hadn’t been personnel lost; the mess of materials would take months to pick up.  With a little luck

~0~

Juri blinked in confusion.  He’d seen Das Maru Ka drifting and had run to get in the back hatch. He’d been shocked to find Jan there and after the smaller man had slammed and dogged the hatch closed he’d indulged in a long hug.  Having the gravity go out had his heart stuttering in fright, but then he could hear the voices of Jan’s cousins talking on the ship com.  He’d had to let Jan go so he could get into his station seat and start nudging drifting debris away from them.

Part of him wanted to shelter the smaller man, but in this Jan clearly knew what he was doing so pulling him away from his task was not only stupid it might be suicidal depending on how the debris around them was moving.  He couldn’t do anything, so Juri wedged himself in the little ladder space under Jan’s station and waited.

~0~

When Jan felt the ship do the funny little drop and lurch that meant she’d gone into slipstream he felt relief.  Then he looked down and saw Juri curled up in an odd little twisted up ball in the small hatch that led up to the sensor space.  The bigger man was dead asleep.  Then Jan felt a giggly sort of euphoria.

Of course then Sebastian kicked the gravity back on.

Juri woke as he fell and yelped as he hit the decking at the bottom of the ladder.  Jan slid down the ladder and in his hurry to see if Juri was alright landed on the taller man.

~0~

Linke heard a yelp and then Jan’s squeak tangled up in a deeper grunt of surprise.  He hurried a bit and rounded the corner to find Jan sprawled over a much larger man.

“Um?  What?”

Jan squealed again and scrambled to get off Juri.

“It’s not what it looks like I swear.”

Linke snorted, clearly not, Juri was trying to get his breath back, but Linke still teased.

“Better not be, you aren’t fourteen yet.”

The way Juri’s eyes widened had Linke stomping on his giggles.  The crestfallen look on Jan’s face told him that Jan hadn’t mentioned his age to his taller and older friend.

“Linkeeee, that’s not fair.  I wasn’t **doing** anything.”  Jan’s wail was the final straw and Linke started giggling.

~0~

Juri gulped. Thirteen. Jan was only thirteen.  Sure he was barely nineteen but _still_.  He’d thought Jan was closer to his age, past legal majority at least.  Not that being sixteen made that big a difference.  Juri whimpered; he felt like a pervert now.

~0~

Sebastian was euphoric, it had worked.  They were free.  He had set the autopilot and was bounding down the corridors of his ship to find his cousins. He followed the sound of Linke laughing his ass off and bounced around the corner just in time to see Jan blushing and their unplanned for forth looking mortified.  Sebastian stopped and cocked his head.

“Ah, I see Jan neglected to mention a few things.”  Sebastian grinned cockily.

“Uh, who are you?”

Sebastian grinned.

“Jack, E, Strify.  Your captain.”

~0~ _Three years later_ ~0~

Jan had gotten tired of fighting with recalcitrant wiring, had taken a quick shower and was now dragging his tired butt back to the cabin he shared with Juri.  Jan smiled.  It had taken a year of constant pressure but Juri had finally folded on the subject of sex.  They weren’t as lively as Linke and Franky or Luminor and Strify but they knew how to have fun.

He froze in the open hatch of their room and boggled.

There was Juri, not unexpected as he was off shift too.  It was Juri naked and the little plate of Urlui sushi and Borgeliian chocolates that had Jan speechless.  Two known aphrodisiacs when all Jan normally needed was a naked Juri.  That they were also thing Jan loved went skipping past his lust soaked brain.

The slow grin on Juri’s face had Jan whimpering.

“Happy birthday babe.”

Jan dove in locking the hatch behind him.

Luminor blinked in confusion as the hatch slid shut and locked with a loud clunk.

Linke just let out a low snort.

“Don’t worry, it just now he’s legal across the Commonwealth, not just the Rim.”

Luminor’s eyes lit with understanding and the pair continued their walk back to the mess and a meal.  They had some planning to do still for the run into the Morglu slave pens.


	2. Sticks, Stones and Acceptance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Back story for Sammy, Romeo and David

Romeo scowled blackly at his cousins, but this time managed to keep from flying into a rage and trying to take all three of them on at once.  Antonio looked smugly amused and turned away forcing the other two to follow.

David was sitting on the ground where he’d landed after Marco’s shove and was staring after the trio that had made themselves his unofficial tormenters since their arrival a year ago.  Romeo hated that so many people looked at Davii and instantly ranked him as less than they were simply because he was Callistan and not Nietzschian.  It hurt that he couldn’t protect his brother.  He’d promised their mother he’d do everything he could to protect Davii before she’d died and he’d used the com code she’d kept hidden to contact his father.

He hadn’t expected the man to turn up within a week, gather up everything of theirs from their mother’s tiny home and take both of the back to Rashava Station to install them next to his other children.  He’d been shocked to find the family Head, Matriarch he reminded himself, she was Matriarch here not Head, was his Grandmother.  Romeo had been even more shocked that she’d approved of him.  Mother’s mother had been distinctly less than pleased with him in particular.  Approval was rather odd, nice, but odd.

Most of his tutors were moderately pleased.  He was coming in to his education a bit late by Nietzschian standards but he was catching up nicely proving at least that his intelligence hadn’t suffered for being cross-bred to a Callistan.  He didn’t see things like Davii did, but his hunches were proving to be very helpful in terms of knowing when to jump or when not to take a certain route to class.

He just wished he understood why Antonio, Marco and Angelus hated them so much.

~0~

Another day, another fight with his darling cousins, another lesson in controlling his temper.  This time they’d chosen the main courtyard to start slinging insults in and oddly they hadn’t been as careful to be sure there weren’t other witnesses.

“The use of insults and epithets to win an argument is the sign of an inferior mind.”  The tone was calm and matter of fact, the voice soft but the implications were echoingly clear.

Antonio turned and raised a fist only to drop it again when he saw which of the cousins had spoken.

Samuel, the Matriarchs favorite, his father’s favorite and accepted genius for ship design at the tender age of fourteen. And clearly he’d just been with their grandmother as the head scarf he usually covered his fine flyaway blond hair with was stuffed carelessly in a pocket.

The mild stare out of those soft blue gray eyes carried a clear message.  Further harassment would carry some nasty consequences, and Samuel wouldn’t get caught or blamed no matter what they said.  Grudgingly the bullies moved on.

Samuel nodded quietly to Romeo and gave David a small smile before he settled back into his sunny spot to continue sketching.


	3. Why Stay

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Linke and Franky, how they got together. Also more detail of how Yu, Luminor and Franky came to Das Maru Ka

Linke sighed as Franky charmed some poor sap just by being himself and wished for the ten thousandth time that day that he had something to make their lovely little rescue case look at him.  Strify was already looking at Luminor in a way that Linke was all too familiar with.  His cousin saw something he wanted; all the gods help any fool who got in his way.  Linke had watched Juri looking at Jan that way in the months before the final blow up.

Juri had Jan now, or Jan had Juri, there were days he wasn’t sure which was which.  Not that it mattered in the end.  He was just happy for Jan.  Both his cousins deserved to be happy and Jan hadn’t been happy back on Valentine’s Drift.  There were expectations that Jan wasn’t willing to lie to himself to fulfill. 

Juri had been a contract worker, _far_ below a Valentine cousin in status.  Never mind that the original Valentine’s and Harpers had been little more than vagabonds now they were moneyed, had _status_.

Had gone and gotten blue-blood uppity more like.

Linke felt his gut twist in envy as the woman was able to get Franky to smile and laugh.  He wanted Franky to smile and laugh for _him_.

He felt pretty damn useless now that he’d gotten all three of their little space orphans at least conversant in Commonwealth Basic.  In private they still talked in the musical, vaguely Chinese sounding language that apparently was common parlance where they came from.

Linke felt pretty comfortable with Yu, they had a fondness for flying and engineering puzzles that had made language lessons easy.  Yu had helped his brother and Luminor in turn had helped Franky when common ground between him and the two prettier foundlings had wavered.  There were some classics that the Alliance and the Commonwealth had in common; Old Terran works mostly, things that dated back before the first Exodus.  But arguing over dead Greeks didn’t make for warm confidences afterwards.

And that was before Linke and the rest of the crew had learned what Luminor and Franky did for a living back home.  That information still left a faintly bitter taste in the back of Linke’s throat.

They were Companions.  The very top of the heap as far as prostitutes were concerned; at least as far as **he** was able to understand things.  Yu hadn’t found the comparison at all funny and had decked Strify for the insult to his brother.  That it had been Jan broadcasting the information at the top of his lungs just made Strify’s black eye funnier. And it did get Strify a bit of the attention he wanted from the tall dark lovely.

Linke had always thought he was well educated, but found himself feeling like he was lacking when compared to Luminor and Franky.  They knew arts; Franky painted the most beautiful scenes with a calligraphy brush and ink, Luminor wrote poetry and sang with a gorgeous deep and rich voice.  Their manners and grace would have made them a hit at any of his Grandmothers stuffy cocktail parties.

Both of them could fly, not as well as he, Juri and Yu could, but better than the average drift jumper did by a long shot.

Linke watched as the woman invited Franky off somewhere private and had to slam his drink to try and wash the bitter taste out of his mouth.

He watched and wished that he didn’t know what Franky did to help keep them all fed and clothed.

~0~

Franky sighed and pulled the tie from his hair and rolled his head to ease the tight muscles in his neck.  It had been a long but ultimately profitable day.  He’d found four small cargoes all going in more or less the same direction that would help fill one of the Maru-ka’s smaller side holds.  He’d spoken briefly with Luminor earlier and knew the other Companion had found several similarly small but profitable jobs and that Strify would have much less reason to stress over work for the next few weeks.

He sighed as he stripped off the silks he’d worn earlier for his assignation with a very lonely but very wealthy matron.  The results of that brief liaison would help add variety to their meals for a while.  He’d noted that Linke had an inordinate fondness for tea over the coffee that the rest of the crew seemed to prefer and had managed to get a small supply of several varieties that he’d seen Linke enjoying the rare single cup of on drifts.  He’d also laid in a supply of real coffee in the hopes that Yu and Lumi wouldn’t notice the slight favoritism.

With Lumi it was likely a vain hope, he’d been terribly observant when they were in training together.  He didn’t think the addition of some unusual technology would change how his friend’s sharp mind worked.  Well, unusual for them anyway.  Jan and Linke both had the odd neural ports installed as well; Franky shuddered at the very idea of plugging oneself into a computer.

“Oh **man**, who got strawberries?” Franky smiled at the delighted tone of Jan’s voice.  “Holy crap.  There’s a ton of fruit, _real_ fruit, here.”  Jan sounded thrilled and from the bits of conversation drifting up the corridor from the mess to his little cabin Timo and Juri were just as pleased with the offerings.

“Do I even want to know?”

Franky turned to see the Maru-ka’s captain leaning in the open hatch to his room.  He smiled and paused for a moment to admire Strify purely on his aesthetic values.  And Strify was a very striking man with a flamboyant personality and mode of dress.

“Just a bit of trade. I put the shipping notes on your desk.”

Strify shifted back to standing and stepped further into Franky’s space.

“I saw those.  I just wonder if the trade you were speaking of is why I have a very drunk and sulky pilot lurking in his quarters right now.

Franky tipped his head in confusion.

“Captain?”

“Linke’s in a snit. I need all three of my top pilots for the next run.” With that Strify turned on his heel and walked back out.

Franky sighed and then laughed softly.  Well, that was interesting.

~0~

Linke was scowling darkly at his wall as he aimed another dart at a target that wouldn’t fucking well _hold still_.

“Christian?”

Linke snarled and spun in place, he **_hated_** his given name.  But the voice wasn’t his cousin, either of them, it was Franky.

Franky with his shoulder length brown hair loose around his face, with a soft robe barely tied around his slim frame.  Linke squinted at the densely patterned orange robe, it was Franky’s favorite robe, but Linke hated it.

He hated it because it covered all that soft skin.

Skin other people could touch but he wasn’t allowed to.

Linke turned back to his darts and threw the one in his hand, putting all his frustration into it.

He missed, and buried the dart in the padding covering the bulkhead instead.

“Chris?” Franky’s voice again, softer this time and closer.

Linke sobbed in frustration.

“Why?” He shuddered in reaction as Franky laid a gentle hand on his shoulder.

“Why?” Franky echoed in confusion.

Linke turned and grabbed, shoved hard and dropped both of them onto his bunk.

“Why can they have you?  Why can’t I?”

If he’d been sober he never would have said anything, never put so much emotion into his questions.  But he was drunk and all the years of not being the favored child came boiling out.  He wanted something for himself and it was right here tormenting him.

Gentle hands stroked up his back and soft lips whispered into his hair.

“But you have me now.”

Linke broke.

The first kiss was rough and a bit sloppy; the second was a bit better aimed but was just as demanding. Linke’s hands were rough as they shoved Franky’s robe off his shoulders, he whimpered and stroked clumsily over the skin he’d wanted to touch since the first time he’d seen Franky, battered, bruised and exhausted but so beautiful.

Caramel colored nipples got mouthed, then bitten and sucked with brutal need as Linke stripped the robe completely off Franky’s slim frame. Linke barely registered that Franky was touching him back, pulling his shirts up and over his head, tugging the belt open and then his trousers open and down.

Linke arched up with a cry at the feel of a soft warm hand on his cock, panted at the feel of teeth worrying at his nipples and a clever tongue tugging the rings threaded through them. It was too good and he was far too drunk, he arched up and screamed, coating the hand touching him with come and then collapsed limply over Franky.

~0~

Franky whimpered and scrubbed his face into Linke’s soft black hair.  He was hard and Linke was a dead weight on his chest.  Trembling he pulled his hand free of Linke’s open trousers and hesitantly tasted the dampness.

He knew he was wanted here.  He wasn’t leaving now.

~0~

Linke groaned, his head was pounding and his stomach was displeased with him.  Worse his bladder was screaming and his right arm was numb.  He had to get up, and he really, _really_ didn’t want to.  Strify was going to kill him for getting plastered before the run through the Baraga Narrows.

Then he opened his eyes and stared in shock.

His arm was numb because someone had their head pillowed on his shoulder.  Someone with soft brown hair.  Only one person on board had hair that color.

“Franky,” Line breathed.

“Hmm?” Franky opened his eyes.

“Oh god.” Linke hauled his arm out from under Franky and bolted for the head.

Linke stared at himself in the mirror after he finished and washed his hands.

He had to have been dreaming.  There was no way Franky was in his bed with him.  Linke took a deep breath and walked back to his cabin and shut the door tightly behind him.

He wasn’t dreaming.

Franky was still in his bed, naked in his bed. Linke stared as Franky rose and walked toward him.

“Try again?”

The words made no sense.

“Try what again?”

The Linke moaned as Franky cupped his face in his hands and kissed him.  This time Linke was in more control as he fisted his hands into Franky’s hair.  But this time is was Franky who moved them back to the bed, Franky who pushed Linke down and covered him with his body.

Linke gasped and groped up to pull Franky down harder as he rocked his hips up. He would have been perfectly content to lay there and touch all that soft forbidden skin but Franky seemed to want more.

Linke almost screamed when Franky sucked on his nipples, and tugged the rings with his teeth, he did scream when Franky mouthed down on the tip of his erection where it was pushing up past the waistband of his trousers.

And he didn’t stop there, he wormed his hands down under Linke’s trousers, peeled them off and began sucking and touching every bit of hyper sensitized skin he could get his hands and mouth on.

Linke writhed under Franky’s skilled hands for a while, but then rolled to pin his little sex demon under him.

“I want you.”

Franky smiled and Linke’s felt his breath catch, this wasn’t the smile that Franky’s clients got, it was different.

“Have me.”

Linke’s hands felt clumsy as he groped for the tiny bottle of slick he kept for when he couldn’t cope anymore and **had** to get off.  Realistically he knew Franky likely didn’t really need all the careful preparation, but he wanted to take the time and the gasps and cries Franky made were worth it. The choked gasp Franky made as Linke slid in had him clinging to his control.  The scream he made as he was coming had Linke gasping and collapsing over the shorter man.

Shaking Linke gathered Franky close and just held on.

Dreaming, he had to be dreaming.

It would take months of waking to find Franky in his bed before Linke accepted it wasn’t a dream.


	4. Patience

David smiled as he slid into the cabin Timo was using. Timo had just spent a ridiculous amount of time either on shift or working on the engines of Serenity with Jan and David was feeling a touch neglected.

But now, in Timo presence he relaxed.

Timo of course was dead asleep, sprawled out over the bunk on his belly without so much as a stitch to cover his lean body.

Not that David was complaining, not when he could fill his eyes with the sight of Timo’s soft skin and sleek muscles. HE crept over tot eh bunk on light feet and traced a light fingertip over the faint striped that marked the skin of Timo’s back and sides.

Tiger stripes, apt for a tiger.

Timo’s arm spines shifted a little but that was the only reaction Timo had to the gentle exploration.

And that made David smile. It meant Timo really had fully accepted him, counted him as kin enough to not do him damage in his sleep.

David striped off his shirt and shorts and toed off his light shoes before settling on the bed beside Timo and tracing those softly marked patterns with his hand.

He’d known long before he’d ever seen the taciturn tiger face to face that he’d have the man as a best friend and lover one day. He just had to be patient.

Rom would likely gargle his tongue once he knew, but Rom would capitulate once he was sure that this was what David wanted.

David snuggled down, laying his chest over Timo’s warm back and smiled again when all Timo did was rumble something that was more contented purr than grumpy growl.

“Rom’ll be grumpy if he catches you again,” was the sleep blurred observation. So David shifted so Timo could roll onto his back, and then shifted to snuggle into Timo’s chest.

“He can be grumpy then.” He busied his hands with light petting strokes. Strokes that Timo only allowed for a few moments before he caught the roving hands.

“Davii,” Timo warned gently. Trying to be kind, trying to keep things in the safe as they are and not let them rove into the more dangerous unknowns. But Tigers were known to be conservative for Nietzschians.

David didn’t want the safe that was anymore. It was time for the change.

“Davii,” Timo groaned again when David leaned down and all but demanded a kiss. The groan was quickly followed up with a low growl as David straddled Timo’s thighs and brushed a rising hardness.

A breath later and Timo had David flat on his back and was stroking one hand down David’s thigh to rest lightly on his hip.

“I want this.”

Timo dropped his head with a sigh then looked back up and locked eyes with David, all but burning him with the intensity of his brown eyed stare.

“David.”

“Shieldbrothers.”

Timo growled and David was drowning in intense kisses, clinging to arms that would always carry him home and pleading, then screaming as strong and gentle hands took the last gift he had to offer. He’d had a vague idea of how good sex could feel, but the reality reduced him to a trembling wreck in Timo’s arms.

After he’d recovered Timo taught him how to return the favor, and seeing Timo panting under him, trusting him absolutely made things end far too quickly.

But the final knots were tied.

David curled in his shieldbrothers arms and slept, content that what he’d seen was done. Now soon they’d all be safe as one crew again. Very soon. They just had a ship to rescue and what he’d seen would be.

He just had to be patient.


	5. Space Born Treasure

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sammy and his small crew find something interesting while doing some engine tests. Or how Theon, Vivian and Jason got found at last.

Sammy frowned down at the screen and nudged his controls a bit to circle around behind the battered remains of the ship.

“Life signs?” This beaten hulk had marking that looked a lot like the markings he’d seen of holos of the ship and pod Franky, Luminor and Yu had been found in.  Marking that told him this Alliance ship was a very long way from home.

“Three, very faint, but more like they’re in stasis of some sort, not like anything nasty.”  Christian made a face, nasty to him was finding a ship with its crew cocooned by Xle’ spiders.  Sammy shuddered, spiders were just nasty in general, ones that could survive hard vacuum were worse.

“What about atmosphere, she’s got some good size holes in her.”

“Part of her are still pressurized.”  Christian chewed his lower lip.  “She looks like she was physically grappled and managed to break away.”

“But how did she get here?  Those aren’t slipstream engines, just standard in system drives.”

“They’re still firing though.” Sammy noted as he pondered how far Alliance engines could carry a ship that size.

“Good autopilot,” agreed Christian.  “And no telling how long she’s been adrift.”  The medic turned and looked over at Sammy as the pilot chewed his lip in thought.

“Are we going to get her?”  Julian voiced the question that clearly was nagging the other two men.  Curiosity was one thing; potential risk to their ship was another.  And there were only the three of them right now.  The rest of the research team was back on Rashava Station enjoying a well earned bit of downtime.  They’d promised to be back in time for Elizabeta’s delivery and Joshua’s formal acceptance of his son.

“Yes.  We can tow her back.”

~0~

Calypso’s return to port was scrutinized with immense amounts of curiosity as she dragged in the raddled hulk of a ship half again larger than she was.  Sammy grimaced when he saw his grandmother down among the crowd watching. 

Joy, just what he needed the official notice of the Matriarch.

But it was done now, so he quickly locked down his boards and headed down to the hatch where his lover and their best friend waited.  Outside he was pleased to see the rest of his research team, including a still heavily pregnant Elizabeta, and her husband Joshua.

Just like normal, Elizabeta walked right up to the hulk and began poking and prodding what she could reach, directing a pair of bemused youngsters to take careful vids of every scrap of writing they could find.  When she walked back to Sammy she was just as blunt as ever.

“This is an Alliance ship, and looks like she was forcibly and physically grappled.  I don’t think it was Argelians, they tend to prefer live captives for their slave trade.  Have you been aboard her yet?”

“No ‘beta, we just dragged her back. Christian says there are three in a stasis state aboard.  We decided to play cautious with only three of us.”

“Caution?  Who are you and what have you done with my Sammy?”

Sammy felt his ears heat up as his grandmother walked over.  He was never going to live down that phase of his life when he had leaped and faced consequences after.  At least his healing factors had been good as a child.  Dutifully though he bent and kissed the older woman on the cheek.

“Attempting to learn from my mistakes, Grandmere.”

“At least some of you can learn.  Do get rid of that blasted rag, how are you going to keep a wife if you hide all that pretty blond hair?”

Sammy’s ears heated further as he yanked his head scarf off and stuffed it in a pocket.  He had children; just none of the women who had graced him with fatherhood had chosen to remain as the wife of a research scientist, no matter how much his engine research enhanced the status and wealth of the pride.

At least now he could satisfy his curiosity, and Christian was assembling a full medical team.  Time to board the relic and see just who had been strong enough to survive an attack in space, or lucky enough.

~0~

Their survivors were humans, not surprising given their suspected origins.  All three had hibernation sickness from the primitive form of cryogenic sleep they’d put themselves into but all and all they were doing quite well.  Sammy watched as Christian caught one under the arms as he tried to walk unaided and failed.

They were all stubborn as hell, but were having pure hell communicating.  Elizabeta only had rudimentary Mandrena and they had no Basic to speak of.  The one blond, Theon, appeared to be very frustrated by the fact he wasn’t picking up the language as fast as he wanted to.  The pretty one, Vivian was managing a bit better, but only in terms of specific vocabulary.  If it wasn’t music or piloting he was just as lost as his friend.  The last one, Jason, had been making his way with careful pantomime, smiles and crude sketches.  All of them had gotten please and thank you down very quickly, but clearly things were wearing on them.

Of more immediate interest all three had a bit of tattooed ink on their right arms.  A glyph, one that was naggingly familiar.  He’s seen ink like that before, recently and now he couldn’t recall where and it was nagging at him.  The style of each glyph was slightly different, but each suited what Sammy knew of the man who wore it.

Theon’s looked like quick brush strokes, Vivian’s was more artistic with little drops and flourish-y spatters while Jason’s looked almost like it had been type set, small blocky and clean.  Sammy jerked when he realizes the ship had carried a large mark like that on her hull.  Did Alliance crews tattoo their members he wondered?

Then it hit him.  Yu had a tattoo just like that, in a loose almost casual style of brushwork.  Yu was Alliance at some point in his past.  He wanted to get up and run to the nearest Com point and ask. Then he stopped and stared back at where Christian had scooped an exhausted and clearly frustrated Jason up into his arms to carry him back to bed.

He couldn’t ask.  None of those men was in any shape to go anywhere, and they wouldn’t be for several months.  Just a vid or still wouldn’t be enough.  He’d have to wait.  Wait for all three to recover their strength, much as it galled him, he’d have to wait and track down Yu in person.

Some things just were better in person.  And if these men were who he thought they might be, they were the sort of space born treasure that could only be believed in person.


	6. Cuchuliann's Run

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A creepy bit of a side story written for a Halloween challenge.. has all of all three crews on Andromeda talking about an odd bit of spacer lore.

Coram’s Paradox: [slipstream theory] the ability for a highly skilled pilot to arrive at his destination point before leaving his origin point in relative Galactic Time.

 

______________________________________

 

 

“So why is hearing about this ship freaking people out anyway? It’s just a ship right?”

Linke looked up at Vivian and blinked.  The look on the other man’s face was open and honestly curious, his blue-green eyes guileless and not looking at all like he was trying to yank Linke’s chain.  He genuinely didn’t know about one of the oldest and eeriest lost ship legends of the Commonwealth.

“What about the Hound?”  Linke sighed, typical; at least it was looking to be typical behavior of the former Lancer.  Chai had an amazing habit of overhearing things, when Linke had rather acerbically asked if it was a requirement of Argosy officers to be skilled eavesdroppers the man had laughed at him.  

Then he’d said it wasn’t a requirement, but it sure helped.

“Viv wants to know why people get jumpy whenever they see her around.”

Chai blinked and Vivian rested his chin in his hands and waited with exaggerated patience.

“I though all pilots were familiar with that old ghost story.”

“Commonwealth pilots are,” Linke noted dryly.  “But Yu wasn’t when we first picked him up.  So I’m assuming the Hound doesn’t drift into Alliance space.”

Chai chewed at his lip ring as he pulled a chair out and settled into to it backward and folded his arms over the back before looking at Vivian.

“The Alliance doesn’t have ghost ships?”

Vivian shuddered.

“No.  We have Reavers and ghost planets, not ghost ships.”

Chai and Linke exchanged a long look before Linke started the explanation.

“Way back, before the Drago-Kazov took over Terra as a slave planet and when the rim was only just being colonized by humans any plague that happened along could take out a place and leave no traces.”

Vivian nodded, that wasn’t so different from home.

“Well, one collective had a deal with several others nearby.  One had problems the others stepped in, worked really well for years.”

“Its descendant outposts and worlds are pretty prosperous even now,” observed Chai softly as he settled his chin on his crossed forearms, almost mirroring Vivian’s posture.

“Well, part of that was they had a damn good pilot doing runs for critical stuff between member stations, drifts and worlds.  Now understand Nietzschians were only just starting to spread, so there’s a fair bit of disagreement on if the pilot was human or a Niet, and both sides claim him.  Guy was called Cuchulainn, and his ship was the Hound after a really old Terran legend.”

“Old,” questioned Vivian, perking up in even more avid curiosity.

“Old, as in pre-Terran space flight,” offered Chai, “**_pre-industrialized _**Terra even, really old human history.”

“As in the kid who killed a killer watchdog with a stick and ball and then had to take over the dogs’ job,” asked Theon as he came in and settled beside his friend to listen just as avidly.

Linke smiled and nodded.

“Killed the dog with a Hurley ball, sounds like we do have some mythology in common,” agreed Linke.  “Well, the Perseids claim he was using Coram’s paradox to make his runs.”

“Coram’s paradox,” asked Theon, looking confused.

“Its part of slipstream theory. If you want your brains melted ask Julian or Sammy about it.  Essentially it’s using the ‘stream so efficiently that you end up somewhere before you left someplace else to go there.”

“So,” asked Vivian slowly, “it’s sort of time travel.”

“In terms of relative galactic time, yes,” agreed Linke.  “Thing is the old jump engines weren’t as stable as more modern ones.  Even the best modern jump engines don’t seem to take jumps using Coram’s paradox very well.  It’s like they just shake apart if you don’t have a really good mechanic babying them after every jump.”

Vivian and Theon exchanged a look, and then Theon asked the question that was clearly burning both of them.

“So he eventually shook his ship apart?”

Linke gave them a crooked grin.

“Let me go back to the story.  Legend says there was a bad plague hitting the Rim.  Places would literally be fine one day and the next no one would check in or answer the com.  When people went to check all they’d find is bodies, lying where they fell.”  He paused to let his captive audience shudder.

“The Commonwealth had a vaccine that could stop it if it was given soon enough in the illnesses progression.  Worked better for healthy folks, but they all do really.”

Linke paused as Franky came in and deposited a steaming mug in front of him.  After dropping a peck of a kiss on Linke’s forehead and admonishing him to not terrorize Vivian and Theon with ghost stories he swept back out headed toward the command area with a tray for the pilot on duty.  Linke smiled faintly, Franky was so spoiling Timo as he tried to teach Davii the basics of piloting.

“Core worlds had plenty of time to vaccinate their folks, but Rim worlds, not so much.”  Linke took a sip of his tea before continuing.  “Cuchulainn decided since his ship was the fastest he’d take a volunteer crew and run the vaccine out to all the outposts he knew of, member groups or not.”

Chai picked up the tale.

“He used the paradox.  Over and over again.  A place would call to warn the next stop he was coming only to learn he’d just arrived or was getting ready to leave.  He hit over forty outposts before he turned toward home.  Legend says he’d made a stop to refuel and heard a distress call and rather than keep heading toward home and letting someone else take care of it he turned his ship around and jumped again.”

“He didn’t make it?” Theon asked after Chai paused a little too long.

“That’s the thing, the ship that made the distress call claims he **did**.  And that he patched them up enough to limp to the nearest Drift.”

“He was supposed to have been shadowing them in,” added Linke.  “And the pilot swore up and down the Hound was right there in his right upper sensor sector all the way in.”

Theon gulped and Vivian went white.

“But when they docked he wasn’t there,” asked Vivian weakly.

Linke and Chai both shook their heads no.

“The Hound never turned up at her home port either, in fact no one found so much as a thumbnail of scrap metal that could be traced back to the Hound.  But in that area of space if a ship is in trouble someone shows up, has the parts to jury rig repairs enough to get them somewhere safe and follows them in only to disappear once they are safe.”  Linke shrugged and took another sip of his tea.

“Argosy has gotten reports for years upon years of a strange ship showing up with critically needed medicines only to vanish after the cargo has been delivered.  I did a stint out on the Rim when I was a cadet; the stories were creepy as hell.  It was always some tiny out of the way place that wasn’t on any map or chart and they were always in _serious_ trouble right before the strange ship showed up.”  Chai stared down at the tabletop for a long moment.

“I saw the Hound once, and got soundly laughed at by my seniors, but the folks Drift-side knew the ship and explained to me what it was.”

“So seeing it isn’t some nasty warning of a horrible fate?”  Theon swatted at Vivian for his question, clearly looking rather uneasy.

“Folks who see her more than once tend to make sure they are doing things by the spacers code, because folks who see her and don’t, well nasty things happen.  Folks who are at least trying to do right by their crews and fellow sentients tend to get left alone.”

“Nasty,” asked Theon weakly.

“Nasty,” agreed Chai.  “Mostly non-fatal accidents, having to dump a slipstream core or jump coils usually.”

A soft voice from the door chimed in.

“I’ve only ever heard of one ship on the Run that had a fatal accident.”  Everyone turned and looked up at Strify, who was wearing a sober and slightly sad look on his face.  “A rumored pirate came to pieces in slipstream between Sulky’s Drift and Angolan Mining Station.  The only survivors were a group of kids who’d been snatched from their parents on Angolan.”  Strify came in and took a seat; he stared at the tabletop for several endless moments.

“I hadn’t taken the Maru-ka yet, so I was still a child, but I remember my grandmother talking about it.  How it was shameful that kidnapping and extortion was still just another part of doing business out on the Rim.”  He gave them a crooked smile.  “I remember it more for being angry that I couldn’t sneak into the gardens anymore, but I also remember the news feeds of the interviews of the survivors.”

Chai’s eyes lit up in sudden understanding.

“We had a few cases like that when I was still a cadet, never fatal, but the kidnapped victims always turned up safe and sound with interesting stories about being hustled into a survival pod and dropped.  I thought it was strange because the descriptions of their benefactor were all so similar.”

“Short, rather blocky with short brown hair and penetrating blue eyes, with the clothing being battered old brown ship leathers?”  Strify nodded.  “They had an artist render the guy’s face; they were looking for him for a long time after.”

Linke spun in place and started typing into the small data set in the mess as Chai mentioned that several of the cases he knew about had also done artist renderings of the so called ‘good pirate’.  The others gathered around as he began pulling up images.

Images that were all eerily similar.

“Who’s that,” asked David as he bounced into the room with an equally hyper Jan in tow and a resigned Timo trailing behind.  Then David leaned over Linke’s shoulder to trace a fingertip over the stubble on the sketched mans jaw.

“I know him.”

“**_What_**,” managed Linke.

“I know him,” repeated David.  “He was in the Pits; he kept the more viscous prisoners and guards away from me.”  David’s face went sad.  “But he disappeared a couple days before Romeo turned up.  He never gave me his name.”

Linke turned and looked eyes with each of his crewmates and then his captain and was unable to stop the shudder that shook its way down his spine.


	7. A Gift of Music

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The ships have been quiet for to long, and Timo decides to fix it. Includes Grisha of Kit-I as an large furry alien..

Grisha watched the young Nietzschian wander around his shop.  His brown hair was cut rather short and stood in a stiff crest, his eyes were a dark and unfathomable brown and his skin was creamy smooth and pale with faint hints of stripes marking his bare shoulders.  His ship leathers were odd, well worn and clearly comfortable but colored in an intriguing pattern of leaves in layers of dark browns.  To a human eye they would be slightly mottled, but to his more acute Astoraan eyes the pattern was clear.

He didn’t look like he would have the thrones to buy sheet music or staff plasti but something told Grisha to wait and watch.  So he waited, and he watched without seeming to look up from the guitar he was tuning and he kept his large ears swiveled toward his odd guest.

He’d had an interesting morning of it already.  There had been that pair of Neits earlier who were looking for replacement pads for a drum synth and had found not only the pads but a lovely older lady of a guitar that the blockier blond had fallen in love with at first sight.  The pair of them had made his rents for the week after they’d bought two sets of replacement pads, drumsticks, and not one but two guitars, strings and a stack of staff plasti tall enough to clog an engine.  More amusing to him they’d worn each others scents like mates did.  He’d thought Nietzschian’s were caught up in mating and breeding and cubs, clearly not all of them were.

Then there had been the tall human with black hair and penetrating eyes who had known what he was right off and had come directly to him to cough a reasonable approximation of a greeting.  Grisha had been happy to help him with his pronunciations and gutturals as he pulled out the stock of spare strings the human had asked for.

Grisha blinked and twitched his whiskers; there was a similarity in that human’s ship leathers and this young Nietzschian’s.  Not in pattern, the human had had an almost abstract pattern of grasses in his deep green leathers and had been wearing a battered knit jumper over a thin shirt, but more in the mind that had designed them.  Like they had been designed by the same man with full knowledge of the men who would wear them, not the sort of thing you saw much here in the core worlds.  More common on the fringe, and even there it was limited to one ship, one crew and he’d seen the ship patches that said at least three ships had graced his little shop today with thrones enough to make him happy.

The cub clearly had taste, and knew what he was looking for.  He’d passed by new model synths and went right for an older model e-piano and was staring at it chewing his lower lip.  Time to step in.

Grisha set aside the guitar and jumped down from the counter and stretched in his typically feline fashion before padding over to the Nietzschian and sitting up to ask if he needed help.  The cub didn’t jump or twitch, but he did gulp, not many folk could deal casually with an Astoraan Luur, and he wasn’t particularly large for his species only standing a meter and a half high at the shoulder.  Of course when he stood up on his hinds he’d tower over this cub, so he chose not to.

“How much for this?”

Grisha blinked, but answered readily enough.

“For it, the case, power cables and stand, nine hundred thrones.”  He waited for the cub to change his mind and go with a less expensive modern synth but he cub didn’t.  He just set his jaw and nodded, interesting.  Grisha took another, closer look at the cub’s hands.  Not piano playing fingers there, guitar maybe, but not the length of fingers for piano.

“How much for delivery,” he asked as Grisha carefully began packing the e-piano into its case.

“Delivery where?”

“Das Maru-Ka, she’s sunward, slip 119.”

Grisha’s eyes lingered on the ship patch that said Serenity, but didn’t ask.

“Another ten thrones,” an imp of mischief had Grisha adding.  “And gift wrap for two if you want.”  The faint hint of a flush touched the young Nietzschian’s ears confirming Grisha’s suspicions.  This was a courting gift.

Grisha completed the transaction and confirmed the delivery to one David Di’Valentina of Das Maru-Ka out of Rashava Station.  He wished he could go with his grandson on the delivery just to satisfy his curiosity.

~0~

Theon had his head bent over the battered old acoustic Vivian had found a few days ago for stupid cheap in a second hand store.  She’d needed strings and her varnish was worn but she had a lovely voice and he’d missed being able to play.  A soft almost feline sounding cough had him lifting his head and looking out the open rear bay doors to see something standing, sitting, he couldn’t tell, beside a hover lift with a crate on it.

Something feline, big, brown with black spots and a white chin, feline.  With enormous honey colored eyes that were looking at him in open curiosity.  Theon blinked, the view didn’t change.  There was an enormous cat complete with big swiveling ears and long twitching whiskers, dressed in a plain cream colored ship suit with the word Levytekku stitched in blue thread over the left breast

“Delivery for David Di’Valentina,” chirped an oddly high pitched voice.  It was rather like a human’s tenor, not the deep rumble Theon had expected. And it had even put the characteristic Callistan pronunciation to David’s name, stretching it to DaaahVeeed over Day-Vid, but Theon ws still trying to get past a very large _cat_ talking to him, so he stuttered a bit when he answered.

“Davii got taken out for a bit of name-day shopping.”  Theon blinked as the cat blinked at him and tipped his (at least Theon _thought_ it was a he) big head to one side.

“Are you of this ship?

“Uh?”  Theon really had no idea of how to answer that.

“We are friends of the ship and of David; I can sign for the delivery.”  Sammy saved Theon from making a bigger fool of himself.  And the cat perked up.

“I remember you, guitars and drums from this morning.”

Theon gave Sammy a wide eyed look as he accepted the manifest and signed for it as the cat person chattered away.

“He’s Alliance; they aren’t used to sentiments that aren’t human,” Sammy explained mildly when the cat asked why Theon was so wide eyed.

“He shouldn’t worry so much.  I prefer to not have a conversation with my dinner before I eat it.  Thank you, Levytekku looks forward to your business in the future.”  The cat put the manifest in a bag and slung it over his shoulders and bounded off leaving Theon staring in shock.

“What,” he asked weakly as Sammy nudged the heavy looking crate into an out of the way corner.

“Astoraan Luur, and a young one.”

Theon blinked, and felt grateful he was still seated, he wasn’t sure if his knees would have held if he was standing.  Sammy looked at him and grinned.

“Yes, they are predators, and no, they don’t eat people.”

“They get bigger?” Theon asked weakly, if that was a youngster he wasn’t sure he wanted to meet an adult.  That cat kid had been bigger than he was.

“Yes, some get quite a bit bigger.  The music store Juke and I found is run by one.  You find them all over the place, they’re very big music lovers and they and the Than have some interesting compositions that humans can’t hear to enjoy properly.”

“Oh.”  Suddenly Theon wanted to go lay down, his head was spinning.

~0~

The tinkling sounds of piano keys and the low strumming of guitars over the steady tap, tap, _thump_ of drums greeted Timo on his return to the ship.  He carefully crept around the corner and saw David happily bent over the e-piano with Julian tapping away at a drum synth, and Sammy, Yu, Viv and Linke gathered around them with their guitars.  He got to stand and watch them bounce through several songs before David looked up and saw him.

David squealed and was pouncing Timo before he had time to blink and was hugging him tight, babbling in delight in a dozen languages.

But Timo got the point, David loved his gift.  The ship had been silent for to long, and now there would be music echoing on her decks again.  Timo blinked when he saw the others gathering as well, Jan with his scratch rig, Kiro with a long necked bass, Christian and Rom with battered synths, even Jason and Juri were hauling out instruments that looked old and worn that Timo _knew_ they hadn’t had a few days ago.

Franky, Strify, and Mei came in with baskets of finger foods, staff plasti, pencils and a small recorder box.

Timo had to smile as David dragged him back toward the e-piano.  His gift of music was being very well received.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


	8. Reunions

(for reference Bon and Qingming Jie are based on the old Earth lunar calendar, but given how widely spread planets are and the settlers insistence of holding the festivals at the same time as the originals you sometimes wind up with a festival that was held in fall being held in winter, spring or as in this case early summer)

 

Inara Serra slowed down a bit as she walked.  This part of the path to the cemetery was steep and had a hard twist to follow the hillside down.  If one paused to look the view down into the Memorial Valley was spectacular but she rarely paused to watch the rising sun reaching warming fingers down to touch the graves anymore.

She’d had River’s daughter Ember wake her last night with a strange vision and Inara had been disturbed enough to come here.  Ember Cobb rarely bothered anyone with her visions unless they were in some way directly involved.

So her asking Inara to check Mal and her parent’s graves because she would be dealing with a difficult client was odd but not completely out of character.  They’d visited the graves only a few weeks earlier for Qingming Jie, swept the plots and scrubbed the headstones, lit incense and left the traditional offerings of fruit and rice.  Everything had been in order then.

Now though as Inara cleared the last turn something was different.

A blocky young man with dark hair knelt between River and Jayne’s graves and appeared to be talking to another dark haired man standing nearby.  Or perhaps he was speaking to the people buried there.

But as far as Inara knew the only Cobb child missing from Bon was Jason.  Inara’s throat closed briefly in grief.  Two of her own grandson’s had been missing as had the one Tam grandson who had become a companion.  Lost to Reavers.

“Grandma!”

Inara’s head snapped to the right, where Mal’s, her daughter Saiou and Simon’s graves lay.  She felt her knees giving in shock at the sight of little Yuki running toward her as a grown man.  Behind him on Saiou’s grave was a spray of scarlet paradise flowers, the flowers little Yuki had brought his mother every year without fail on her birthday.  Flowers he’d left on her grave every year without fail after her death.

A strong and unfamiliar pair of arms caught her and set her gently on the ground.  Half a second later and Yuki was on his knees beside her hugging her with all the intensity he’d had as a small child.  He felt taller, more solid than he had the last time she’d seen him on the Ghost.  He’d kept to dying streaks of scarlet in his hair though and still wore the small padlock they’d once used to keep he and his crèche mates safe from Alliance ‘recruiters’ when they had been very small.

Inara sobbed and held her grandson tightly.

When she caught her breath and looked up she found herself being held by Yuki, Luminor and little Franky, a step behind them was Jason, Vivi and Theon.  Clustered around them was a group of strangers who were clearly both happy and confused.

Franky bless his sweet heart pulled out a large thermos and offered her the lid filled with an aromatic tea she’d never tasted before.

Gentle hands moved her to one of the contemplation benches and slowly the explanations came out.

They had been attacked by Reavers, but Franky had dumped them into a wormhole in a desperate bid to escape.  The resulting chaos had let a badly battered Ghost escape and Jason had set up a jury rig cryo-sleep container to get him, Vivi and Theon away to safety.  He’d inadvertently set them on a ten year nap.

Some of the strangers got introduced then.  The strong arms that had caught her belonged to Sammy, one of several men with odd bone colored spines sticking through heavy bracers.  Something told her they weren’t mere ornaments either.  Julian kept fidgeting and his would move.

Her little Yuki had gotten himself a pair of pretty little lovers, and dear reserved Luminor had found himself a little fireball of a captain to keep him occupied.

Her eyes filled in memory of her own beloved captain.

Inara felt her breath catch as she watched Jason being gently held by one of the strangers.

River had sworn just after she’d had Jason that he’d find a lover from a faraway place and spend his life traveling.

Jayne had snorted at his wife and cradled their last and very late son in his arms and said his boy would be a pirate and a scamp.  He’d never gotten to see his son walk.  After his death, River had gotten strange, stranger than when Inara had first met her, which was saying something.  River had come to Tranquility because Ember was here.

Jason had been a strange and quiet child, and Inara had worried for him until three little scamps went to crèche and dragged him out of his shell.

Inara shivered a little in the rising breeze and had to blink back tears to see him happy and well and surrounded by people who cared for him.

~0~

“Jason Cobb!”

Jason yelped and slipped and fell out of the apricot tree onto his ass.  The gardener stomped up to him still yelling then froze.  Her face went white as she remembered Jason Cobb was lost, but this man in front of her had been climbing the same apricot tree that Jason climbed every year when the fruit was just starting to turn.  Her hand trembled as it reached out to touch the tousled black hair on top of Jason’s head.

“Oh ancestors…” Jason blinked as Christian swept up and caught her as she fainted.

“Is this going to be a recurrent thing with you lot? Making elderly ladies faint in shock that you’re still alive and up to your old pranks?”

Jason flushed.

“Aunt Ember’s dealing with an idiot, and well you could have stayed on the ship.”

Christian gave him a look and carefully laid the gardener out of one of the benches.  Then he swore softly and had to carefully disentangle his arm spines from the soft fabric of the woman’s skirts.

“And leave you to your own devices? Hardly.”

Jason’s breath caught as Christian stalked up to him and dragged him back to his feet.

“Umm…” Jason didn’t have the chance to protest as Christian cupped the back of his skull and demanded a kiss.

He got so lost in the feel of Christian’s hands on his body that Jason forgot they were in a very public section of the gardens.  It took quite a while for the sounds of rustling fabric and soft whispering to penetrate his pleasure hazed mind.

Eventually a group sigh got his attention and Jason looked over Christians shoulder at a small cluster of people dressed as initiate level companion students.  He let out a low moan that was only partly provoked by the feel of Christian’s hands on his ass.

“We, unh... we have an audience.”

Christian snorted and kept on with what he was doing, which made Jason moan again in appreciation.

“Then they’d best observe closely.” Christian’s blue eyes were alight with mischief.  “I’m not demonstrating this again.”

Jason cried out as Christian slid his cock home in one fluid thrust.  After that he was too busy to pay much attention to the avidly watching students.

~0~

Shin felt odd. Not that he was on a strange planet; that was actually kind of normal.  It was looking up at the stars and seeing one particularly bright one standing static in teh sky and knowing that was Andromeda.  And knowing he was her captain.  Romeo's solid presence behind him helped some. He, Sammy and Strify had been giving him a very thorough education into what it meant to **be** a ship captain, his responsibilities to his ship and his crew and their obligations back to him.




Rommie helped as much as she could too, and she had memories of several of her captains’ stored away and her own understanding of how people worked and the laws of the Commonwealth.

It was that they were hiding away in Alliance space that was odd.  Rommie had tapped into media feeds and was busy figuring out the laws and history of the space they would be traveling through.

He was happy to have given Yuki and the other Alliance people back to their families.  But it made him feel even more alone.

Watching Yu introducing Kiro and Mei to his grandmother had been cute.  And that was before she’d realized Kiro and Mei weren’t related.  Explaining the near and non humans had been interesting.  If Theon hadn’t blurted out that he’d met giant talking cat people it might never have been necessary but Theon had, and had shown the ship video of his meeting with the young Lurr who had delivered David’s name day present.

That had proved more interesting than he’d liked.

Yuki’s grandmother had been fascinated but the video clip of a very young Astoraan Luur, and had been curious about Vivian and Jason’s tale of a giant bug helping them get the common speech of the Commonwealth.  Explaining that Mei and Kiro weren’t as human as they appeared had been trying.  Some of the younger students at the Academy had been all for hands on exploration, something that had made Yuki bristle and growl.

And that as before he heard about Christian and Jason doing a bit of impromptu sex play in one of the more public garden spaces.  From the commentary that Shin had heard whispered in corners it had been rather educational.

From some of the looks the Nietzschian contingent was getting Shin half expected there would be some propositions flying after evening meal.

But the smiles on the faces of his newest crew were worth it.  Franky and Luminor had spent some time with an elderly companion.  Then Franky had introduced Jan and Linke to his grandmother, a frail but still feisty woman with strong opinions on all sorts of mechanical and engineering topics.  He’d had to hide behind his mug more than once to keep his grins hidden.  When Sammy and Julian joined the discussion he’d been lost three words in, but had fun watching five engineering nerds playfully arguing over the inner workings of the universe.

Franky had left them to it and taken over his grandmother’s kitchen, and from the smells wafting out before long there would be another of his wonderful meals.

Shin jumped at the feel of warm hands on his shoulders, but relaxed again when he looked back and saw the familiar lines of Romeo’s face.

“Kiro and Mei are back.”

Shin blinked, he hadn’t known the two Ssulli were going anywhere.  Romeo quirked a small smile at him and pulled him back so Shin was leaning into Romeo’s legs.

“Apparently Ssulli have some specific hospitality rituals that go with being a guest in someone else’s home.”  Romeo sounded faintly bemused, but Shin knew exactly what was going on now.

“Mei raided Andromeda’s gardens didn’t she?”

Romeo nodded.

“We have the surplus, and she’s been having trouble keeping up with the Mehendalli.”

Shin’s eyes stung in memory.  His Grandfathers had adored the fruit of Mehendalli vine and had cheerfully stripped one of the vines of their tiny red tomato like fruits on more than one occasion.  The head gardener had complained more than once on the last trip out that there wouldn’t be enough to dry for later use at the rate and two men devoured them.

Shin hoped where ever his Grandfathers were there were Mehendalli and Relata vines.  Shin shook himself and paid attention to Romeo’s words.

“I think she’s going to plant one of the dratted things in the gardens here.  Something about the climate being good for them.”  Romeo shrugged, Ssulli social customs sometimes left even knowledgeable diplomats scratching their heads.

Shin nodded, that fit in with Ssulli hospitality practices, at least the one he knew.  You didn’t leave food plants anywhere you considered hostile territory, or anywhere you thought could **_become_** hostile territory.  A gift of food plants was a show of trust and faith in alliances.

“What else did she bring down?”  Shin was curious as to how much faith Mei was willing to put in these relatives of Jason, Franky and Yu’s.

“That pear tree that she’s been having trouble finding a permanent place for and another pear so it’ll be fertile and a tray of Caska creepers, the ones that didn’t bear fruit this time around.”  It sounded like Romeo was repeating things that had been told to him, but Shin knew what he was talking about.  He adored Caska berries as much as his Grandfathers had adored Mehendalli fruit.  Caska vines though could take over a garden if not carefully tended.

But Caska vines were also one of the traditional plants exchanged at a Ssulli wedding.

All and all it boded fairly well.

~0~

Inara had never seen a Commonwealth ship before.  She was used to the boxier forms of the Alliance.  This ship was all swooping and graceful curves, not a square line to be seen.

The gardens shocked her.

That one very small woman could tend hectares of garden that were intended to produce food for thousands, it just boggled her mind.

Then she met Andromeda.

She’d had no idea that The Earth That Was had gone on after the Exodus; that they had pulled back from the brink and survived.

Well, survived to become slave planet anyway. Sometimes the fact that baser aspects of human nature never really changed bothered her.

But what wonders they’d wrought.

A surgery fixed one of the crèche orphans cleft palate and clubbed feet.  They called it a simple surgery, something the Alliance didn’t bother with for all their experimental micro surgeries on the brain.

But she supposed that was all a question of how it benefited the core world bureaucracy.  Powerful, predictable and controllable psychics were far more valuable than one Rim child’s quality of life.

Human nature again.

Inara let her eyes trail over her grandsons; Yuki and his two little lovers played an odd little game of chase around the gardens and Luminor, her darling moonlight, was settled, more settled than she had ever seen him.  He and his captain were curled up over one of her art books, the ones she sometimes used when she wanted to design new clothing.

Theon and Vivian were as cute as they had been at ten when they had come to dinner hand in hand and said they’d marry one day.  Franky looked content curled at the feet of his lover as the lean man read from some obscure book. 

Jason, quiet and contained Jason, was smiling more.  She wasn't sure quite what to make of Christian. The man clearly had an exhibitionist streak kilometers wide. The juniors were still talking about some of his techniques.   She had no doubt that if the man was just a little less intimidating he’d have collected a large number of propositions.




But he was oddly solicitous of River’s last child, and that she found comforting.

Jason deserved to be happy.

They all deserved to be happy.

She settled back and closed her eyes.

~0~

Luminor held Yuki tight as they laid flowers on the cover stone on their grandmother’s grave.  Behind them Strify, Kiro and Mei waited with the rest of the crew.  The extended family had said their goodbyes already.

Ember had expected it, and had everything ready when they’d brought the empty shell of Inara Serra back to lay her beside Mal.

They’d had their reunion.

It hurt, but they’d at least had that.


End file.
